BlackBerry Limited (NYSE:BB) Sees Large Increase in Short Interest

BlackBerry Limited (NYSE:BB) was the target of a significant increase in short interest during the month of January. As of January 15th, there was short interest totalling 29,500,000 shares, an increase of 7.1% from the December 31st total of 27,540,000 shares. Currently, 5.1% of the shares of the stock are sold short. Based on an average daily volume of 13,000,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 2.3 days.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts have recently weighed in on the company. TD Cowen raised BlackBerry from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price target for the stock from $3.25 to $4.00 in a research note on Friday, December 20th. Canaccord Genuity Group raised their price objective on shares of BlackBerry from $2.80 to $3.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, December 20th. Royal Bank of Canada raised their price target on shares of BlackBerry from $3.25 to $4.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a report on Friday, January 10th. CIBC upped their price objective on shares of BlackBerry from $3.50 to $3.60 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, October 17th. Finally, Robert W. Baird raised their target price on BlackBerry from $3.00 to $3.50 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, December 20th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, three have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, BlackBerry has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $3.69.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO John Joseph Giamatteo sold 29,402 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, January 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $4.00, for a total transaction of $117,608.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 490,761 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,963,044. The trade was a 5.65 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, insider Mattias Eriksson sold 14,475 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, January 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $3.68, for a total transaction of $53,268.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 238,838 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $878,923.84. The trade was a 5.71 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 244,221 shares of company stock worth $925,655. Corporate insiders own 0.34% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of BlackBerry

A number of institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Barclays PLC grew its stake in shares of BlackBerry by 60.2% during the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 249,218 shares of the company’s stock worth $652,000 after purchasing an additional 93,651 shares during the period. Milestone Asset Management LLC bought a new position in BlackBerry during the 4th quarter worth approximately $557,000. Intact Investment Management Inc. grew its holdings in BlackBerry by 25.7% during the third quarter. Intact Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,439,240 shares of the company’s stock valued at $3,789,000 after purchasing an additional 294,250 shares during the period. Capstone Investment Advisors LLC bought a new stake in BlackBerry in the third quarter valued at approximately $1,285,000. Finally, State Street Corp raised its holdings in BlackBerry by 1.9% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 1,309,606 shares of the company’s stock worth $3,431,000 after purchasing an additional 24,309 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 54.48% of the company’s stock.

BlackBerry Trading Down 3.0 %

BB stock opened at $4.31 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.27, a quick ratio of 1.37 and a current ratio of 1.37. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $3.57 and a 200 day moving average price of $2.80. BlackBerry has a fifty-two week low of $2.01 and a fifty-two week high of $4.54.

BlackBerry (NYSE:BB) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, December 19th. The company reported $0.02 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.01) by $0.03. BlackBerry had a negative return on equity of 2.02% and a negative net margin of 21.16%. The firm had revenue of $143.00 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $144.84 million. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.01 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was down 5.9% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts anticipate that BlackBerry will post -0.03 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

BlackBerry Company Profile

BlackBerry Limited provides intelligent security software and services to enterprises and governments worldwide. The company operates through three segments: Cybersecurity, IoT, and Licensing and Other. The company offers CylanceENDPOINT, an integrated endpoint security solution; CylanceGUARD, a managed detection and response solution; CylanceEDGE, an AI-powered continuous authentication zero trust network access solution; CylanceINTELLIGENCE, a contextual cyber threat intelligence service; BlackBerry Dynamics offers a development platform and secure container for mobile applications; BlackBerry Workspaces a secure Enterprise File Sync and Share (EFSS) solution; BlackBerry Messenger (BBM) Enterprise, an enterprise-grade secure instant messaging solution for messaging, voice and video; BlackBerry SecuSUITE is a certified, multi-OS voice and text messaging solution; BlackBerry AtHoc, a secure networked critical event management solution; and BlackBerry unified endpoint management (UEM) solutions.